Colored artworks

The work of color is central in any artistic work. It is even one of the first tools of the artist. It is difficult to imagine a work that would exist without the working of color - even if it is the absence of color that the artist chooses to present.

Through the ages and artistic movements, the use and meaning attributed to color evolves, but the essence of color remains the same. Every artist must master the properties of color in order to control his composition. In the restoration of paintings, color even becomes a science, because it is necessary to know the different molecules to find the colors and mixtures originally used by the artist.

In the history of art, the importance of color fluctuates according to periods and geographical areas. During the Italian Renaissance, for example, there was a debate (called Paragone) between the authority of color versus drawing: according to the schools, it is the color, and not the line, that creates the emotion and visual power of a work of art. The colors thus take on an immense importance, and assume certain meanings: white symbolizes purity for example, and blue (systematically used to clothe the Virgin Mary) is associated with divinity. These symbols are not thought of randomly: the purple for example, is used since the Byzantine era to signify the highest rank of royalty. Unlike ochre, the purple pigment came from a specific shell, and was extremely difficult - and therefore rare, and expensive - to obtain.

More generally, colors can be divided into three categories: warm, cool, and neutral. As their name implies, these classes of colors give off an atmosphere that the painter can use to influence the emotion of his work. Baroque art, for example, manipulates the contrasts between warm and cold colors to capture the power of bodies. The play of light is exalted by the effects of color. For a long time, the traditional Western school of painting required painters to reproduce the colors of the environment around them. It was the Impressionists, in the 19th century, who explored other ways of seeing - and therefore of transcribing on canvas - their chromatic environment. By avoiding complex mixtures and painting spontaneously, in the open air, the Impressionists reinvented the use of color to reproduce reality.

It was not until abstract and subjective painting that art devoted itself to color as a subject. Mark Rothko, precursor of the Colorfield Painting movement and of abstract expressionism, sees in his paintings a living organism whose color is human and whose format is transcendent. Piet Mondrian, on the other hand, sought in his paintings to approach the very essence of nature through the purity of primary colors, to achieve abstraction. The founder of the Russian avant-garde movement of Suprematism, Kasimir Malevich, will disturb the senses of everyone with his work "White square on white background", in which the color is painted only for itself. Contemporary art, photography, collage, or pop art also use in their respective ways the resources of color, exploring indefinitely all its pluralities. As Picasso said, "When I have no blue, I use red."

Artsper writes art in color: discover below a great selection of works that honor color and its properties. What better way to brighten up an interior?

Search by Image

Save your search and find it in your favorites

22/100 1 10 20 21 22 23 24 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Categories

Subcategories

Colored artworks

Mouvement

Route barrée

Beau bouquet

Señor Patator (0)

Nostalgie

Escape zone

Ailleurs

Carne divino

Eclaircie - Série Quelqu'un, quelque part... - paysage entre abstraction et figuration

Place du Molard et son Marché aux Fleurs à Genève

Nature morte poisson, moules et citrons

Innocences, Series Albahian

Les monstres intérieurs

Argnac - Composition abstraite

Nautical Twilight

Venise 1

Sadhajayya B by Andy

Sour cherries in my garden

Bavardage chaloupé

Marilyn Monroe

Family Wax

Lagune

Rolling Stones - Made in the shade

Reason (clipping series - understand)

New moon

Figure Astratte

The Dance With The Blooming Sakura

Fond de coquelicots - Champs de fleurs

Skolptura_024

Amazone

My African remix

Into the Waves, Painting, Oil on Canvas

Chimère dans un azur vert de patates cosmiques bleues... + cadre T'es vu, patate crue!

You know, i can be blue, or not...

The Parade of the Winter

Go Your Own Way

Yellow Landscape

Rumble in the Jungle

Ranunculous 232a

Paradis

Balancing

Shifting Sands

Untitled

Ouessant - Paysage insulaire - série île de Bretagne

Code barre bordeaux

Untitled

Composition printanière

Landscape

Autant en emporte le vent

Afternoon Run, Embarcadero

Unbound

Mara et ses chats

Parasit

La vague

Chalets et patûrage

Paysage lacustre automnal

Bénédiction

Accrétion

Frida&co

Bienvenue

Sans titre

Sans titre

Golfing in Normandy

In blossom #4

The Sun

Mareggiata al tramonto